ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mike DePaulo has a new stakes horse under his wing this year.

Joining the DePaulo barn over the winter was Millfleet, a 5-year-old gelding who was formerly trained by Hugo Dittfach and who will make his season debut in Saturday's six-furlong, $125,000 Jacques Cartier at Woodbine.

Millfleet won back-to-back Ontario-sired stakes in 2004, taking the Deputy Minister at seven furlongs and the Bunty Lawless over one mile on turf. His only win in 12 starts last year came in a third-level allowance Dec. 1, his final outing of the season.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Two-time Sovereign Award winner Judiths Wild Rush heads a good field of eight in Saturday's $125,000 Jacques Cartier, the first stakes of the 2006 Woodbine meeting.

Judiths Wild Rush, the 2003 champion 2-year-old and reigning champion sprinter, was beaten a nose after mounting a wide bid in the 2005 Jacques Cartier. He went on to capture the Grade 3 Vigil and Bold Venture Stakes before finishing a flat third in the Teddy Drone Stakes at Monmouth.

CALGARY, Alberta - A stakes doubleheader and an allowance prep for the April 29 Stampede Park Sprint Championship make Saturday's card easily the strongest of the meet.

Golden Hunt, winner of two sprint stakes last year and a candidate for divisional honors - to be announced at Alberta's "Night of Champions" here next Saturday - is the 121-pound highweight in the six-furlong allowance prep for the Sprint Championship.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Spirit to Spare figures to be very tough to beat in the $50,000 Brighouse Belles for fillies and mares at Hastings Saturday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature drew eight horses and goes as the seventh race.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Tom Two and Ballou Slew are rematched in Saturday's $10,000 Preview Stakes at Portland Meadows, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds that has drawn a field of seven.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - That was a beautiful set of bookends Artie Schiller brought to his 2005 campaign. After starting the year with a rousing victory in the Maker's Mark Mile, he ran four more times with mixed success before capping his year with a dramatic triumph in the Breeders' Cup Mile.

Trainer Jimmy Jerkens can only hope 2006 goes as well - but whether or not it does, the design is identical. Artie Schiller, unraced since winning the Oct. 29 BC Mile at Belmont Park, makes his 5-year-old debut Friday in the 19th Maker's Mark Mile at Keeneland.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The experiment to stretch Sensation out in distance in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies didn't work. So, trainer Stanley Hough will most likely concentrate on keeping the filly sprinting this year.

Hough appears to have found the right spot in which to bring Sensation back in Friday's $60,000 Road Princess Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct. A field of eight was entered for the 6 1/2-furlong race.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Ex Caelis, who closed out her 2-year-old season in the Breeders' Cup, is one of several promising fillies expected to use Friday's Grade 2, $250,000 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park as a springboard to the Kentucky Oaks.

The 1 1/16-mile race drew eight 3-year-old fillies, among them Quiet Kim, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks; Brownie Points, a multiple stakes winner; Sweet Idea, who has won her last three starts by more than 30 lengths combined; and the promising Ready to Please, Sweet Fervor, and Miss Norman.

ARCADIA, Calif. - A flashy win by Gallardo last month will make him the favorite in an optional claimer at Santa Anita on Friday, but he will face challenges from two veteran claimers who each are coming off a victory - Primerica and Spriggzee.

The trio is expected to dominate the one-mile race, which carries a purse of $62,000. The optional claimer is the seventh race on an eight-race program that begins at 3 p.m. Pacific. The optional claimer was not intended to be the feature; two allowance races on turf failed to draw sufficient entries on Wednesday morning.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - In most years, the Commonwealth Breeders' Cup Stakes is run the day after the Blue Grass Stakes. But with Keeneland sitting dark Sunday because of the Easter holiday, the Commonwealth BC will be run Saturday, helping to form a blockbuster 10-race card.

Twelve older horses, led by Sun King, have been entered in the Grade 2, $400,000 Commonwealth, which will directly precede the Blue Grass on a Saturday card that also includes the Grade 2 Jenny Wiley Stakes and five allowance races.